Thursday, 6 October 2016

HISTORY OF THE ESTUARY – HERITAGE WALK AROUND THE ADYAR CREEK – BATTLE OF ADYAR.

02nd
October 2016.

The final point
of our Heritage walk around the Adyar Creek was at the junction of
Pattinapakkam and Santhome high Road, where the famous Battle of Adyar was took place. The
battle was a consequence of Fort St. George surrendering to the French early in
October 1746. Navab of Arcot in support of British sent his son Mahfuz Khan
with troops to ask the French to
handover the Fort St George to British. Instead the French chased them away. The
Mahfuz Khan reinforcing his army to about 10000 soldiers moved south and seized Santhome, which was
under the control of French then and lined up on the north bank of river Adyar.

Two hundred
French and French trained Indian troops led by a Swiss mercenary, Caption
Paradis, force marched from Pondychery and
took the position on the south bank of river Adyar, after capturing the Quibble
Island on October 22, 1746. Paradis came to know that De la Tour also from Fort
St. George is marching to wards Adyar to attack Mahfuz Khan from back. But he came very late. On 24th Oct 1746, with a
trained, disciplined and systematic firing from the French troop led by Paradis, Mahfuz Khan with his
troop of 10000 men fled away towards Kanchipuram. The Battle started in
the morning and ended in the evening itself. This battle
taught a lesson to British to form Madras Regiment and trained the soldiers. This also seeds the formation Indian army and Pakistan army.

Before finishing
of our Heritage we had seen the former Finance minister’s house on the banks of
Adyar River. Work is on to demolish and
construct new building. It was learnt that Mr Chidambaram was not given a share
of this property, since he married a other community lady.